A Simple Thank You

Today I wanted to say thanks to family and friends.

We always loved getting together with the families when we were living closer. Sunday dinners at my parents house were the best, all my brothers, their wives, nieces and nephews sitting around the table laughing at funny stories from family vacations or stunts pulled by one, or a number of us, while we were growing up. Sometimes it surprises me that we all made it through our childhood, and with such great relationships now. Of course these are all things we can laugh about now but maybe weren't so funny when they happened. We would get together with Pauls' family and play games for hours. I have really missed getting together with all the family, watching as my nieces and nephews grow up or having my sister so close that I could stop by anytime.

One of my biggest worries about living so far away, wasn't even for me, but for Abigail and others children who would join our family. I was worried that because we wouldn't be able to go to every family gathering, birthday party or holiday event that family members would forget her. Of course we keep up with family over many different types of social media but what about her birthday, Christmas and other family memories?

We came home the other day after some quick errands and found a box at our front door. It was a Christmas gift from a Great Aunt! This is the same Aunt that sent her a birthday gift that she still takes around everywhere with her, it's a little doggie purse. When it was her birthday, Abigail got a number of cards in the mail with sweet notes from family. My favorite part was watching her. Once she noticed the brightly colored envelop she would gasp with excitement, tare it open then run over to me so I could read it to her and we could look at all the fun images on the cards. It was a week long of birthday excitement, waiting to see if and who she would get something from. Her grandma will usually send a card for all the holidays, letting her know that Grandma is thinking of her and is so excited to see her again. Right now Abigail is too little to get all sentimental about it and I'm sure it means more to me right now than her, but we love that others take the time and make sure she knows she is loved.

So, I wanted to say THANK YOU to all those who have and will continue to remember her when the families get together, as she reaches different milestones and as holidays come and go! 

Happy 4th of July!!

The 4th of July has always been a great family holiday growing up. We celebrate our country's independence, my dads birthday and my brothers birthday. We now have a niece to add to the celebration. Paul and I weren't able to make it to last years party but we heard that it was a blast. This year the family went a step further and rented Sumo Suits. Paul was so excited then found out on Sunday afternoon that he was going to have to work the whole day of the 4th {I mean the whole day, 15 hours}. He did get a little break in the middle so he was able to come visit for about 45 minutes. Just long enough to get in the sumo suit and visit with the family!!!

The chase...

The hit...

One of our cutest nieces ever!!!
Her mom made her fun 4th of July dress.

Other activities included Volleyball

...and the slip n' slide in the sumo suit!!

The weather was nice and overcast all day, it was perfect for a huge party in the back yard. We even heard that some who were there turned down their own families to come and spend the day. I love my family and that they can make anyone and everyone feel so welcome!! There were extended family and friends from everyone there, I really couldn't believe how many people showed up. It was so much fun and a great Holiday party to be our last before we leave.

The First 80 Years

I have some catching up to do.

On the 12th of June we had a birthday party for my Grandpa and Grandma Nuesmeyer. They have been married 17 years and are both celebrating their 80th birthdays this month.

My mom had decided to have a party and invite both sides of the family. Her and my aunt went to town. Delegating assignments and making sure as many people knew about it as could come. I was in charge of the video montage for them. Since I had only meat my Grandmas side of the family once or twice it was going to be hard to get pictures of her kids, grand kids and great-grand kids. I e-mailed as much as I could and was able to get a few.

After scanning a bunch of pictures for both of them I put it all to music. I can not tell you how many times I watched it, making sure the timing worked out, that all the pictures looked good... When I finally put it up on the big screen it looked so different from what I had been watching on my computer monitor ~ I loved it. After words there were a number of people who came up to me and told me they really liked it, they wondered where I got all those photos, and if they could have a copy. Of course!! What would be the point in doing all that work if I wasn't going to share? Whenever I make these videos I love to give CD's with all the pictures on them so that the rest of the family can enjoy the pictures as much as I have. This way they can print them off, look through them and have a copy for themselves.

I was so happy that everyone enjoyed the video. If I ever get a YouTube account I'll put them up so you can see them.

I had a short history from both of them.
So many fun facts.

The Birthday Couple!!

The Nuesmeyer side of the family.

Paul about to land on his pocket of keys while playing Volleyball.

And...Because we don't like to waist anything...
the after party with the balloons.

Bentley is 1!!

I can not believe that Bentley is a year old. On May 14th he turned one and for his birthday we decided to take him to PetSmart. I always feel bad when I take him out to use the restroom and have the leash on his collar and it pulls around his neck. For my birthday present I wanted to get him a harness. It makes him look so grown up, my parents said the same thing too. Paul got him a new bone and some wet dog food. Then, just for because, we got him a toothbrush. We haven't tried it yet but I'm sure it will be an adventure.

Here is a picture of Bentley and his spoils from a great birthday!!!

A Reason To Celebrate

Paul ~ Thank you so much for taking me out for my birthday.

I haven't had to worry about what day my birthday has fallen on because ever since I was in College it has always fallen on Spring Break. This year it was the week before and on a Wednesday so Paul had classes and I ended up being sick. But for my Birthday we were able to get tickets for Fiddler on the Roof that was playing at the Hale Center Theatre. This is one of my Dads favorites and I remember listening to the soundtrack on so many times on family vacations. So not only did Paul get us tickets to go he was able to get enough to take my parents as well.

I absolutely loved it!!!

Anytime the cast started singing I wanted to start singing at the top of my lungs, it put a huge smile on my face. It was a great production of the musical. The opening scene "Tradition" and the dream sequence were the best of the whole show. It is amazing what they are able to do on such a small stage and a theatre in the round {that means there are seats 360 degrees around the stage}. The dead wife of the butcher was flying in the air, the bed was spinning and there were huge puppets. I had heard about he puppets from Paul. He knew what the set was looking like since he helps in the change overs but he had also told me about the puppets because one of his professors was the puppet master and in charge of designing them and getting them built.

If you have a chance to go and see the show before it ends ~ I would recommend it!

Very well worth it.

Family Birthday Party

The last Sunday of every month my grandma holds a monthly birthday party. We are not able to make it every month so when we are in town on those Sundays we always try to make it. For the month of September it was my grandma and a son of one of my cousins. It is always a great time to catch up with the family. It wasn't warm enough to pull out the slip-n-slid but my grandpa made sure that the bikes were all working. My niece and nephew do not have bikes of their own and so they haven't mastered the skill of riding a bike without training wheels. I got on the little bike and showed my niece how easy it was. Since I was on the bike I was not able to get a picture to share with everyone.

Uncle Ryan tried to teach my nephew how to ride the bike and my mom tried to help my niece.

This is the little pink bike I was riding

Bike lessons

More Birthdays - More Babys

We just could not help ourselves for the Fourth of July weekend, we ended up going down to visit with our families, celebrate the holiday and hopefully welcome another addition to the family.

This weekend started early. On Wednesday I took the light rail into SLC and had my sister pick me up. I was going over to spend some time with my brother-in-laws wife and their new baby. My nephew and my sister came in with me when they first dropped me off to see the new baby. When my nephew found out that there were little kittens there as well he spent the rest of his time trying to chase them down. That night, after my brother-in-law got home, we all went over to Grandma Yeates' for dinner. It was so much fun to be able to hang out with the new mom and baby. That night she only woke up once at about 4:30 then did not get back up until 9:00. Being that the baby was not even two weeks old she was still sleeping all the time but I noticed that for the time she was awake she was trying to look at everything around her and take it all in.

I forgot my phone that night so when we got back to their apt I noticed I missed a call from my mom. The next morning I called her back and she said that her, my dad, my sister and her two kids were all going to Vernal to visit with my grandparents. We have been trying to go and visit them for some time now but usually someone has been sick or the schedules just did not match up. Since the new baby was still just sleeping and eating there was not much I could do to help out so I had my dad come and get me. My grandpa and grandmas birthdays are in June so it was good to see them and visit. We also went to the dinosaur museum out there too. My niece and nephew loved it. All of the huge dinosaurs and the activities kept them really entertained.

The Fourth of July is such a wonderful Holiday to spend with family. It is also my dads birthday and my brothers birthday on the third. Every year we spend it together having a BBQ and playing games.

Another Weekend - More Birthday's

June 26th

This weekend was a birthday party for Paul's Grandpa, he turned 80 this year. It was a lot of fun to see everyone and celebrate with Paul (Grandpa). The theme was a Luau and Vonda and her brother and Sister went all out. Paul's uncle added onto his house to make the kitchen/living room area larger. Anytime there is something going on where a lot of space will be needed we do it there, it is a perfect space to have everyone over to.

The Birthday Boy

After a lot of the guest left we pulled out the limbo stick.

I don't want to forget my Sister, her birthday was on the 27th. We went to visit her and the kids but I did not remember to get any pictures.

Because it seems like we have spent every weekend in down with our parents, living out of our suitcases and sleeping where ever we could find a bed, we decided that we would go home on Saturday night so that we could be up for church on Sunday. It is just so nice to sleep in our own bed and be in our own place.

What a Weekend

Minnetonka Cave

We had a lot of plans for this last weekend but non of them worked out so on Friday night Paul suggested that we go up to the Minnetonka Caves up by Bear Lake. It was a lot of fun to take a day trip and get away. The good news about taking a leisurely day trip is that it didn't matter that the map quest directions that we printed off were wrong. We just backtracked and asked for some directions. When we got to the cave the next available tour was at 4 o'clock and it was only 2. Of course it was raining so we made ourselves a sandwich in the car and took a nap. It was a fun little tour and just nice to get out for a bit.

You guessed it, The Entrance

Paul said this one looked like a little monkey, sure enough
they call this the Monkey Skull

Kermit's Castle

The wedding room

Of course we can't go to Bear Lake without getting a Raspberry shake

When we finally made it down the mountain we kept waiting for our phones to get service so we could see if anyone had sent us any news about our sister-in-law and the baby, she was being induced at 11:30. Since we didn't have any messages Paul called his mom to see how things were going. As it turns out it was not until 11:30 p.m. not 11:30 a.m.

Just about ever weekend since school has been out we have been down in SLC for different things. This weekend we had decided that we were going to stay at home and be able to see the new baby and sister-in-law next weekend when we come down. I think Paul saw the excitement in my face when we realized that we had not missed anything. When put together with other things that were happening over the weekend we still ended up down there.

We got to the Hospital at about 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning and visited for a while. My parents house was pretty close so we decided to head over there after a bit and get some sleep. Since it was Fathers day on Sunday everyone came over, half of the family lives there and the others do not want to miss out on my mom's Sunday roast, so it does not usually take a special occasion to find everyone there on a Sunday. We were also celebrating our nephews birthday so he opened his presents before dinner. He was so excited that his mom got him a jersey outfit he practically jumped out of his clothes to get changed.

Swim Trunks from Grandma

Ball and bate from his Aunt and Uncle (not us, oops)

In his new Jersey from mom

Helping Grandpa open his Father's day present

Happy Fathers Day

My brother and his wife bought a 4wheeler, my nephew calls it the motorcycle,
he and his sister wanted a turn to go out on it.

Look Ma' no hands

Enjoying a wonderful Sunday afternoon ride

Another Uncle teaching him how to ride the dog

Right after dinner Paul got a text from his brother saying that the baby was born. I'm not one that likes to push my way in or hover over people so we left about a half hour later hoping that we would miss the crowd. By the time we got there most everyone had cleared out so Paul and I got to hold her for a long time. Then the nurses took the baby to bath her and so they could move the mom into another room. It was nice to be able to stay and visit for a bit, we did not get out of there until 10:00. Our wonderful Sister-in-law let us just hangout and visit with them even though I was sure she was so tired. I think it was really fun for Paul and his brother to be able to spend some time together too.

The Uncle

The Aunt

Paul is really excited. This is the first niece on his side.

As we were leaving there was a page for an LDS Elder, it was a little bit confusing trying to figure out what was going on but Paul was the only one who answered, they asked him to go back up to the Women's Center for a blessing.

Being so late by the time we got out of there we decided to spend the night at my parents again. I, of course, was fine with this because that meant we would pass by the hospital on our way home and we could stop and see the baby again and her mom and dad. I LOVE being an aunt. We couldn't help ourselves so we stopped at Wal-mart and got some balloons and a little stuffed animal, as well as a soda and some treats for the new parents. Pauls brother seemed especially excited about the Mt. Dew.

Look at all that dark hair.

Paul's Birthday Quilt

I made a quilt top for Paul when we were dating, I actually made two in one day but then when it came to finishing them I took my time. With the time I had this summer and my parents basement family room that was wide open, I finally set up the quilt to finish it. I tried quilting it a different way then just tying it like normal, I quilt stitched it by hand and think that it tuned out pretty well. I was able to get it done for his birthday but the best part of the whole thing is that he loves it.